Sullivan County fire investigator recounts Novak death scene details

Official: Victim's body appeared posed

MONTICELLO — A county fire investigator testified Monday in Paul Novak's murder trial that he suspected a homicide when Catherine Novak's badly burned body was found spread-eagled in the basement of her burned-out Lava home.

MONTICELLO — A county fire investigator testified Monday in Paul Novak's murder trial that he suspected a homicide when Catherine Novak's badly burned body was found spread-eagled in the basement of her burned-out Lava home.

"It seemed very suspicious to me, yes," said Art Hawker, the lead fire investigator in the Dec. 13, 2008, fire on County Route 25.

Novak is on trial in Sullivan County Court for first-degree murder and other crimes, accused of strangling his estranged wife in the early morning hours and then setting the house on fire to cover up the crime and collect insurance money.

Novak was found on her back underneath a debris pile, with arms spread behind her head and legs spread. Her head and shoulders were in the doorway of a utility room off the main basement area.

It took investigators nearly three hours of sifting carefully through the rubble to find her body. Investigators ruled out several accidental causes of the fire, such as the pellet stove in the basement, electrical causes, gas lines and an explosion from the exterior propane tanks.

Hawker, a former high ranking state police investigator responding as a county bureau of fire investigator, testified he reported his suspicions to the state police and the Sullivan County district attorney. He said the body appeared posed, and he would more likely expect the body to be lying in a fetal position or on its stomach.

"I didn't like it," Hawker said. "It looked like she had been dragged either by her feet or her arms to that position."

Hawker said his suspicions increased when the body was turned over and placed on a body bag. While the fire burned off nearly all Novak's skin and clothing, her buttocks and a small triangular section on her back weren't burned. Hawker said that suggested she was lying on her back before, or shortly after, the fire started.

The home was older and built with heavy conventional lumber, Hawker said, so it would have burned more slowly. When pressed by Novak's attorney, Gary Greenwald, Hawker estimated the fire started at least two hours before it was reported. But the origin and the cause of the fire and the time it started were never determined.

The family's dog also perished, discovered in a crate that fell through to the basement when the floor collapsed.

A neighbor, Denise Nix-Thompson, called 911 at 6:36 a.m.

Nix-Thompson, the trial's first witness, testified last week: "I saw this bright light and I looked outside and the house was burning"». It was a huge fire, coming from everywhere."

Nix-Thompson also testified she glanced over at Novak's house several hours before seeing the fire. She got up sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom and get a glass of water. Normally Novak only kept her porch light on.

"Was there anything that struck you as odd or different?" the prosecution's special counsel Steve Lungen asked her.